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WoW: Forever beta update: all changes of September 24

· by Davina Asaria

Blizzard put a new build on the WoW: Forever beta. Community Manager Kaivax posted the full development notes on the forums. Here is every change, sorted by topic.

Bug fixes

  • Casters play their precast animation again and no longer sometimes stand still while casting.
  • New, nicer sound when you jump into water.
  • Adjusted the Human death sounds.
  • Crafting or casting while waiting for your Campfire buff no longer makes you stand up.
  • You can now buff each other, cast and craft while you wait for your Campfire buffs.
  • You get the Campfire buff while sitting, sitting in a chair, sleeping, lying down or using the kneel emote.
  • Huey Sunnydale's legs render properly again.
  • A Season of Discovery rune ability was visible by mistake; fixed.
  • Pet Happiness now decreases again once your pet has max loyalty.
  • The ooze in the Undercity canals is no longer far brighter than intended.
  • Removed a setting that could switch off fog in an unintended way.
  • Fixed a water display issue and other display glitches on Mac.
  • Fixed a memory leak that slowly lowered performance for some players.
  • In-game mail no longer ignores surnames.

Classes

For the beta only: if you have not changed your talents recently, a respec costs 1 silver. After your first reset the next one is much more expensive, but it drops back to 1 silver after one hour.

Druid

  • Rejuvenation and Tranquility can now critically hit.
  • Wrath base damage increased by about 50%.
  • Thorns now scales with the caster's spell power, and falls back to its base values if the caster is gone or too far away.

Druid: Feral

  • Mangle is now called Primal Bite. Its signature debuff was removed, so the old name no longer fit. All talents that mentioned Mangle now say Primal Bite.
  • The Primal Fury talent is back to its original name and icon: Blood Frenzy.
  • Feral Charge (Cat) can no longer be cast on allies.

Druid: Restoration

  • Wild Growth can now critically hit.

Hunter: pets

  • Furious Howl gives 40% less Attack Power.
  • Bat pets now get Sonic Blast as they should.
  • Tame Beast no longer works on beasts above the Hunter's level.

Hunter: Marksmanship

  • Dropping the Lone Wolf talent no longer gives you 4% less damage while your pet is out.

Hunter: Survival

  • Lacerating Strikes can now critically hit.
  • Strider Kick now gives 30% movement speed for 3 seconds.

Mage

  • Arcane Missiles only checks line of sight once, at the start of the channel, so a target walking out of sight no longer stops the missiles.

Mage: Fire

  • Wake of Fire now lasts 30 seconds (was 20). Developers' note: it was hard to use while leveling, because Mages often have to drink between fights.
  • Hot Streak now lasts 20 seconds (was 15).
  • Ignite no longer counts percentage damage bonuses twice.

Paladin

  • Retribution Aura now scales with the caster's spell power.
  • The Flash of Light cast animation plays at the end of the cast again.
  • Consecration fixes: the extra damage now hits all targets, height (the Z axis) works consistently, and it no longer pulls targets far above or below you.
  • Holy Strike weapon damage per rank is now 25/29/32/36/39/43/46/50% (was 25/25/30/30/35/35/40/40%). Developers' note: more damage while leveling, a bigger part of your rotation, and every new rank now feels like an upgrade.
  • Echo of Justice no longer triggers more often than intended.
  • Righteous Fury now raises Holy threat by 60% (was 90%).

Paladin: Holy

  • Holy Strike cooldown lowered to 10 seconds (was 12).
  • Improved Holy Strike is removed from the talent tree and its effect is now baseline. Developers' note: a talent that shortens a core ability so early in a healing tree felt mandatory.
  • The Light's Vigil tooltip now makes clear that only the damage version refunds part of the mana cost.
  • Holy Power now also gives Holy Strike 15% extra critical strike chance, on top of its old effects.

Paladin: Retribution

  • Vengeance now triggers from non-periodic critical strikes.
  • Vengeance now stacks up to 3 (was 5).
  • Two-Handed Weapon Specialization now gives 2/4/6% damage (was 3/6/9%).
  • Sacred Arbiter now increases Holy Strike damage by 20% (was 10%).
  • Twist of Light now also makes your Seals cost 20% less mana.

Priest

  • Renew can now critically hit.
  • Power Word: Shield can always overwrite an existing Power Word: Shield on a target without Weakened Soul.

Priest: racial spells

  • Gnome: Contingency Plan can now critically hit. Confounding Flash now has a cast visual, more Holy than Arcane, with new sounds to match.
  • Night Elf: Starshards now gets the spell pushback resistance from the Twilight Focus talent.
  • Undead: Dark Sacrifice no longer breaks crowd control that breaks on damage, and its tooltip now shows that the mana it gives scales with Spirit.

Rogue

  • Sap now flags the Rogue for PvP when used on a PvP-flagged target.

Shaman

  • Lightning Bolt ranks 3 and 4 do more damage, so every rank is an upgrade despite the changed cast times.
  • The Windfury Totem buff now just says "Windfury Totem" (was "Windfury Totem Passive"), and the Flametongue Totem buff says "Flametongue Totem" (was "Flametongue Totem Effect").
  • Flametongue Totem no longer has a duration and is replaced instantly when you drop another totem.
  • Flametongue Totem can no longer be stacked by casting it again and again.
  • Flametongue Totem no longer stacks with Flametongue Weapon or with Windfury Totem.
  • Tranquil Air Totem, Windfury Totem and Grace of Air Totem no longer stack with each other, not even from different Shamans in the same group.

Shaman: Elemental

  • Elemental Fury (row 3) and Elemental Alacrity (row 6) swapped places. Developers' note: extra crit damage early in the tree is not exciting while leveling with little crit chance, so a key Elemental talent now comes sooner. It does affect Enhancement's spell crit damage, and the team will use the room to add more to Enhancement later.
  • Lava Burst ranks 1 and 2 now do about 10% more base damage than the Lightning Bolt rank you learn around the same level.

Shaman: Enhancement

  • Rage of the Far Seer (row 7) no longer increases spell casting speed; it was not needed for what the ability does.

Shaman: Restoration

  • Riptide can now critically hit.

Warlock

  • The Life Tap tooltip now shows the right amount of life converted, and only mentions that it scales with Spirit.
  • Voidwalker Sacrifice now scales with 10% of the Warlock's spell healing.

Warrior

  • Sunder Armor threat corrected on all ranks, with a small increase in threat from Attack Power.

Warrior: Protection

  • Bastion (row 5) and Focused Rage (row 6) swapped places. Developers' note: Focused Rage now comes sooner, which makes leveling as Protection smoother before you get Shield Slam.

Warrior: Arms

  • Bloodthrill now has a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to trigger (was 2/4/6/8/10%), and only from main-hand melee attacks, including Cleave and Heroic Strike.
  • Slam cooldown increased to 18 seconds (was 15).
  • Improved Slam now lowers the cooldown of Slam by 1.5/3 seconds.

Races

  • Gnome: Eureka is now a 10% discount on Mana, Rage or Energy abilities for every class.
  • Human: Will to Survive now uses the Dispel Magic visual instead of the Will of the Forsaken one.
  • Tauren: Cultivation now has a player level requirement per herb: the Herbalism skill needed to pick the herb divided by 5. Herbs that need more than 300 Herbalism can be cultivated at level 60.
  • Undead: Touch of the Grave no longer breaks crowd control and no longer triggers from spells and abilities without a damage component. Developers' note: Shadow Word: Pain triggers it on cast but not on its ticks, Distract no longer triggers it (so it cannot pull Rogues and Druids out of Stealth), Pick Pocket no longer triggers it, and Polymorph can no longer trigger it either.

Cooldown Manager

  • A new option that takes important information from your buff bar or action bar and shows it wherever you like. It is off by default: turn it on under Options, Gameplay Enhancement.
  • Druid, Mage, Priest, Warrior and Warlock can test it now; more classes follow in later updates.
  • Blizzard mostly wants to hear which spells you would like to see tracked by default.
  • It does not support spell ranks yet; that comes in a later beta update.

Gamepad support

  • New class flyouts on the action bar: shapeshift forms for Druids, pet control and pet spells for Hunters and Warlocks, auras for Paladins and stances for Warriors.
  • For Hunters and Warlocks the pet bar no longer replaces the bottom gamepad action bar.
  • New options under Gamepad (Alpha):
  • Use Compact Action Bar: only shows the action bar that is active at that moment.
  • Fixed Party Targeting: in a party (not a raid) every direction on the d-pad targets one specific party member.
  • Swap Target Modifier Sides: friendly targeting on the right, hostile targeting on the left.
  • Swap Friendly Target Action Sides and Swap Hostile Target Action Sides: swap the d-pad and face button actions for that targeting modifier.
  • Edit Mode layouts are applied again while the gamepad UI is on.
  • Updated Map and Quest Log bindings, new hover behaviour for map pins, and better support for the Compact Raid Frame Manager and role polls.

Items

  • A few guns and bows did not use ammunition correctly; fixed.
  • Several quest rewards now have the correct item level.
  • A small number of early caster rewards were adjusted.
  • Wizard Oils are back to their Classic Era values: Minor Wizard Oil 8 spell power, Lesser Wizard Oil 16, Wizard Oil 24. Brilliant Wizard Oil is unchanged.
  • Wands no longer get extra damage from your spell damage.

Quests

  • Some dungeon quests could be shared and gave the other player a quest item; fixed.
  • Dalaran: faction adjustments, with spawns now just outside the city entrance.
  • Dun Morogh: the Snow Leopard Prowler respawns much faster, and everyone can loot the rifle for "Treacherous Cold" again.
  • Durotar: the escort NPC for "Lost in the Shadows" respawns faster.
  • Elwynn Forest: "Book Return" now removes the extra Book Bag; more crates and supplies for "Stolen Enchanting Supplies"; the murloc camps around Crystal Lake respawn faster (Mrrglrlrlrmgrr!); Mother Fang respawns a little slower and does not always drop a green item; Shinyfinder Narf respawns faster and every party member can loot the quest item; Nimsy respawns faster; you can learn Skinning from Helene Peltskinner even while you have her quest; and Jasperlode Mine and Fargodeep Mine were a bit too deadly for solo players, so their candles have been taken away.
  • Mulgore: the Water Pitchers for "A Humble Task" respawn faster.
  • Silithus: Khonsu's arrival is removed from this beta phase and will return to Azeroth later.
  • Silverpine Forest: the worgen in Pyrewood Village respawn faster.
  • Teldrassil: "Bounty: Gnarlpine Furbolg" now needs 15 kills (was 20).
  • Undercity: the Skyborne quest "Exploring the Horde" now completes the objective to speak with Lady Sylvanas Windrunner. Dark Lady watch over you.
  • Westfall: the Defias Messenger spawns more often.
  • Zephras Isle: the High Order quest "Catching Wind" is redesigned with adjusted spawns at the Overlook Standing Stones in the Shen'dar Highlands; healing the druids of Nightclaw Cavern now gives credit for "Wounds of Betrayal"; and "A Firm Response" gives credit again.

User interface

  • Updated look for the selected nameplate.
  • New textures for the Personal Resource Display.

Known issues in this build

  • Banes and Curses are not tracked correctly if you drop your target and pick a target that already has one.
  • The Healthstone cooldown cannot be tracked.
  • Priests track all spells by default.
  • Arcane Blast cannot be tracked.
  • The Mana Gem only starts tracking its cooldown after the Mage casts another spell.
  • Creating or changing a party can move players to another world instance; Blizzard is working on it.
  • Pet cooldowns cannot be tracked.
  • Weapon enhancements such as Windfury or Rogue poisons cannot be tracked.
  • The minimap in Stormwind has display problems; fixed in a later build.
  • The Personal Resource Display does not show combo points.

What this means for Legends of Azeroth

Good news for our Undead and paladins in particular: Touch of the Grave is cleaned up, Holy Strike hits harder at every rank and Holy paladins get it baseline on a shorter cooldown. Testing the beta? Share what you find in our Discord or on the forum.

Source: Blizzard's development notes on the official forums at https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/wow-forever-beta-development-notes-updated-september-24/2360696
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